Emaar Properties

Emaar Properties is the developer behind Downtown Dubai, the Burj Khalifa and The Dubai Mall, and it remains the city's most recognisable master developer. It is publicly listed on the Dubai Financial Market, which means its results and delivery record are reported rather than asserted — a rare and useful thing when you are assessing a developer you are buying off-plan from.

Its work is organised around masterplanned communities rather than standalone towers: Dubai Hills Estate, Dubai Creek Harbour, Emaar Beachfront, Arabian Ranches, Emaar South and The Valley among them. For a buyer that has a practical consequence. In an established Emaar community the parks, retail, schools and road access frequently already exist, so you are judging a specific phase rather than betting on a masterplan that has yet to be built.

The counterweight is pricing and supply. Emaar's name is in the price, and the larger communities release phase after phase, so your eventual resale competes with the developer's own later launches in the same community. Worth thinking about if you are buying to flip rather than to hold.